Thanksgiving 2006: A Recap.

First of all, let me say that I CAN'T BELIEVE that I am back at FUCKING work, the day after FUCKING Thanksgiving. Which I normally have off, but because some big, bad bank bought my company, is NOW a working day. I am filled with a low, abiding rage that I've tried to suppress with an orange juice and a sausage, egg and cheese croissant from Dunkin Donuts. I can feel the rage being pushed back by the sausagey, cheesey, eggy goodness, but this is going to be the LONGEST DAY AT WORK. Ever.

And being at work today, is made even worse, because being off yesterday was as good as it was. Probably one of my favorite Thanksgivings, in a long, long time.

Here's the recap:

Technically, the Thanksgiving holiday started on Wednesday, when the office closed at 3pm. Oh sure, some poor bastards CHOSE to work late, but when 3pm came, I was out the door as fast as I could go. (Last year, when we had the early, pre-holiday closing, I got a TON of work handed to me at 3:30, by other people who were rushing out the door. I ended up working until 6pm. I learned my lesson. I ditched as soon as I could.) If there was late work for me to do, my procrastinating co-workers had to do it for themselves.

I picked up a Subway sandwich at the Montrose station and then picked up my laundry on the walk home. (I'm slowly turning back the tide against the mountain of laundry that used to dominate my bedroom.) I got home and ate dinner with the dog, watched some tv and then she and I settled down for a much-needed nap. Hendo called and woke me up, to give me the run down of the Turkey Day menu. Everything sounded delicious. I thanked him and went back to napping with the pooch.

I woke up later in the evening to an empty apartment. Joe was in the suburbs, working at the theater, and I knew that he would actually be spending the night with our friends, The Kids. (Everyone that I know, calls John, Vicky, Tresa, Elsie, Pete and Justin, The Kids. Or sometimes The Kids from Carbondale. Where they all met at college. They're all really good friends of mine that I don't see as much as I would like to. We all keep very busy schedules. Major holidays are spent with them, though. I have a lot of happy memories of holidays spent with The Kids.) So, I knew I would be home alone on Wednesday night.

I celebrated that with nearly two hours of City of Heroes and then passed out, in bed, out of exhaustion.

Thursday, I slept late, which was nice. I knew that there was the Macy's Day parade was on, but since I'm not 12 anymore, I decided to skip it. I intentionally avoided eating anything, all day long, knowing that I would have a big meal at Hendos. I killed the morning hours, playing a little more COH. Good times, smashing robots and fighting street gangs.

I showered and dressed. Hendo had advised me NOT to wear anything too formal. But to dress comfortably. I wore my "I Got Wood" t-shirt and some comfy Carhartz, over to his place. I noted on the cab ride over that the streets of Chicago were pretty much devoid of car and pedestrian. Which made me want to wander the streets all that much more. I don't see my city emptied out very often. It always strikes me as such a pretty town, when the people are all gone. Like the city is holding it's breath, for a day.

As promised, the spread of food at Hendo's was delicious. Hendo had made his first turkey. His cooking method, something to do with a broth, was spot on and the turkey was as moist and as flavorful as you could possibly want it to be. In addition, everything else in the spread was just as good. The mashed potatoes were salty and light. The casserole was appropriately green-beany. And the stuffing was also delicious. Hendo promised a grand Turkey Day meal and he didn't lie. It was all good. He also had wine prepped for us and I sipped a very nice Riesling for the rest of the evening. Got a bit tipsy too.











And because it was Thanksgiving, we discussed threesomes (the one I had, the one I failed to secure), Mark admitted to having a tiny wiener and later, tried to stab me with a sword.

I wish I could say that anything in that last sentence was a bit, but they all happened.

Later, after the food had digested and we'd all enjoyed a slice of pie together, I caught a cab over to The Kids place, with Speedy. I dropped her off on the way over. I was sure to thank Speedy for the great dinner conversation and for confirming to Hendo, that I am packing a giant wiener. You can't ask for a better ex-girlfriend, folks.

When I got to The Kids House, things had been progressing for hours already. In the living room, a couple of people that I didn't know were playing duet Guitar Hero on John's gigantic tv screen. In the backroom, Joe and Lee and Elsie and Derek were all playing a marathon game of Magic: The Gathering. All the other women in the house were walking around them, rolling their eyes. A bunch of bored girls? I'm in heaven!

I was in the kitchen, pouring a jack and coke, when Cassie came through, wearing a bikini and asked me if I was going to get into the Hot Tub, soon?

A hot tub?
A hot tub, you say?
There's a hot tub at this Thanksgiving Day celebration?
Glory Be, a hot tub!

Sure enough, I went out back and was very pleased to see that John's hot tub was not only running, but it was cycling through an amazing light display and had a full stereo of music playing. I was so happy that I almost cried. I wanted to be drunk and in that hot tub with as many women as I could get in there with me.

I was instructed to head upstairs and shower before I got in the hot tub (to remove oils and perfumes and whatnot). I was cool with that. If there was any weirdness about showering quickly at someone else's house, I got over it pretty quickly. I nearly raced downstairs to meet up with everyone.

One of my friends, "T" called me upstairs and she and "Dre" and I, got our attitudes adjusted, chemically. Thank God for that. I didn't want to enter the hot tub SOBER! While we sat there, the girls talked about how they were both "in heat" and "ready for some action". I knew that I wasn't going to be the guy to give it to them, but I didn't mind hearing about it. We also rubbed each others legs. They showed off how cleanly shaved they were and I showed off how cleanly shaved, I wasn't!

Off to the hot tub. On my way through the house, I stopped at every bored girl that I ran into and said, "You know, a bunch of us are hitting the hot tub, it would be good to see you there!"

By the time that I actually clambered into the bubbly, hot, churning mass of water, it was me, Pete, Dre, Tresa, Cassie and Elsie. 4 girls, 2 guys. So, the quotient was JUST ABOUT RIGHT. If I weren't friends with all of them, I would tried to make out with each and every one of them. I did enjoy all the bikini goodness. Nice.

I eased back into the deepest chair on one side and listened to the music and the jokes. I thanked Tresa for having the hot tub and having it hooked up, nearly two dozen times. I let the jets of hot water massage my back for at least an hour. I looked up and saw the clouds moving overhead. The outside temperature was 70 degrees. A perfect night for hot-tubbing with friends.

And there's where I'll leave the story, friends. Afterwards, some other things happened and I talked to old friends on the phone and eventually went home to sleep next to a sleepy, sleepy dog. But my heart is back there in that hot tub, stoned, drunk and reveling in the relaxing comfort of it all, quietly singing a Dave Matthews song to myself. As content as I've been in a very long time.

Cheers,
Mr.B